Samatvam yogah ucyate
Sorry about long delay since last Sutra – I have been busy, and without Susan badgering me I would have forgotten again today!
I left you last time to think about the question, “What do you do when future suffering cannot be avoided?” What was your answer? Here's a thought:
In the Bhagavad Gita, the warrior Arjuna could not cope with the prospect of having to fight in battle against his cousins. He sank down in his chariot, throwing aside his bow and arrows, saying, “I will not fight.” His charioteer, Krishna, gave him this advice:
“Fixed in Yoga, perform actions,
Having abandoned attachment, Arjuna,
And having become indifferent to success or failure.
It is said that evenness of mind is Yoga.” (BG 2.48)
There are times in life when you find yourself in a situation that seems unbearable. It can be very difficult to school your mind into the indifference that Krishna advises, but if you can, it's possible to cope. But what is also interesting is the advice not to be too carried away by success, because that in its own way can be just as dangerous. There are of course various sutras of Patanjali that make a similar point (I leave you to make your own suggestions – post them up here if possible) but since I am limiting myself to one sutra per month I won't quote them.
Other writers from other times and cultures can be found who say much the same. For example, the old English poem “Deor” (http://www.kami.demon.co.uk/gesithas/readings/deor_me.html) is one of my favourite meditations on the survival of terrible hardship. And the Roman poet Horace writes as follows:
“Remember, Dellius, since you must die,
to keep a steady mind in difficult circumstances,
and likewise in good circumstances a mind
free from giddy joy, ” (Odes 2.3)
(See http://www.merriampark.com/horcarm23.htm for the rest of the poem.)
So how do we go about cultivating that evenness of mind?
Well,......
Comments
Cultivating Evenness of Mind
Hi Margo,
Apologies for the delay in contrbuting - the site did not send me it's usual semaphore signal advising me that there was a new sutra.
When I read about Arjuna's initial depression I always think of Emily Dickinson's line in her poem "After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes," in which she describes this experience of depression as "This is the Hour of Lead."
I don't know what others do to cultivate evenness of mind, but for me it has always been prananayama. I am rather prone to panic attacks, to the extent that it affects my ability to drive, sleep, and to generally enjoy life. This anxiety begins in the mind, and it exhibits itself as a nightmarish mental roller coaster in which the prevailing emotion is one of acute fear. This state is not one of depression, and it is not in the least tamassic (lethargic), indeed there is bags of energy, but it is the opposite of evenness of mind.
I find pranayama to be the art of being in the present moment. It is not just a case of taking one breath at a time, but of being with just this part of the breath, the inhalation, the exhalation ... ... To let go of fear, or any sort of baggage, requires an ability to breathe out, but of course anxiety restricts the exhalation. To consciously extend the exhalation is to decide, moment-by-moment, to let go of the breath-of-life. I would go so far as to say that working with the exhalation is about having a relationship with abhinivesah - our fear of death.
I find that this practice promotes evenness of mind.